


she's not alone

by orphan_account



Category: Black Panther (2018), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 500 Words Challenge, Aftermath, Angst, Fluff and Angst, Grief/Mourning, Multi, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Prompts Welcome, Shorts, Soulmates, collection, open-ended, soulmate identifying marks, to be added to - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2019-05-02 06:32:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14538732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Short ficlets dealing with soulmates and the aftermath of Infinity War: Part I.1. Shuri/?





	she's not alone

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm being weirdly productive on fandom today. Huh. Of course inspired by the MCU legend that is amusewithaview, and more to come on this, and the other one I've started. Title from a gorgeous gifset on Tumblr. I'm open for prompts in this kind of area, so please send any ideas through if you have them, I'd love to write some <3

**I.**

_“what is stronger than the human heart which shatters over and over and still lives”  
― [Rupi Kaur](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8075577.Rupi_Kaur)_

It only occurs to her later, when she’s in her room, washing her face and trying not to think [brother, _gone_ , mother, _gone_ , future, _Queen of fucking Wakanda, what the hell?_ ] and suddenly she’s scrabbling to pull up the sleeve of her shirt, her Kimoyo beads rattling on her wrist, short of breath and panicking. Her eyes catch on the gold writing slanting across the crease of her elbow, and she exhales, explosive and aching and half-angry. She rubs her fingers across it, wondering if it’s going to flake off the way she’s seen people disappear today; it sticks obstinately to her skin, and she huffs, unsure how to feel.

“You’re not as alone as you think you are, my Queen,” Okoye had told her earlier, taking her by the shoulders in the way only Okoye would dare, her eyes screaming things she’d never, ever say aloud. “Nakia is heading back, and you have me, and the surviving council. Lean on us.”

[She knows what Okoye didn’t say: you weren’t born to be a queen, you don’t know what it means to rule. How to have balance. You’ll have to drag yourself out of your labs and actually attend to people and do all the things T’Challa used to relish and you used to hate, but you can’t hate them now, you can’t…]

Not alone, she makes herself think, tracing the words again, gently this time. Not alone. There’s someone out there waiting for you, a girl, she hopes, with a quicksilver smile and a light-speed brain, someone to run along into the spaces between atoms with, someone who will walk into the lab and look around with awe shading her voice gold and purple and say, “Wow, you built _all this_?” and Shuri will grin at her and say, “There aren’t any limits for someone who dares to dream.”

She looks back up at her face in the mirror - haggard, drawn taut, heavy with the weight of everything that has happened - staring into the eyes of a girl who, overnight, has to become a queen. She takes a breath, and pulls her sleeve back down. Her soulmate is alive, they haven’t dissolved; with half the world gone, Shuri knows she’s luckier than most, but it doesn’t stop the tears massing in her throat like acid, burning and scouring her cells. “It’s going to be okay,” she tells herself, watching the way her mouth enunciates the words, and tries to believe the lie.

[Somewhere on the other side of the world, the girl with the quicksilver smile is sitting in a plane above the Pacific Ocean, and trying to believe the exact same thing].

**Author's Note:**

> Come tumble at me: @barefoot-anarchist and send ideas!
> 
> Also, I see the woman in this one as Skye, but tbh it could be anyone, hence the reason I've left it as a question mark for lovely readers to decide who they would like her to be.


End file.
